Tuesday, 31 December 2013

The individual title of each volume of Neil Gaiman's The Books Of Magic is given on the title page but not on the front cover so they come as a surprise. Book Four is The Road To Nowhere (New York, 1991). Mr E and Timothy Hunter, like HG Wells' Time Traveler, visit the near, then the far, future.

When asked whether he can travel into the future, John Constantine replies:

"Only like everyone else, boss. You know. One minute at a time." (p. 4)

One
minute per minute is enduring, not traveling. Travel requires two kinds
of units, e.g., one mile per minute. One objective century per one
subjective minute would be time dilation, not time travel, although, in
certain circumstances, this is called "time travel." I discuss this on
the Logic of Time Travel Blog.

I think that E
contradicts himself. He insists that they are truly in the future, but
then unhelpfully adds "...or futures" (p. 5), but then says that what
they are seeing is only a possibility that may never happen (p. 7). He
describes the future as many possibilities, none of them definite, and
explains that time travelers visit only the most probable. It follows
that time travelers setting off from different times will travel through
different futures. This contradicts Merlin in Book One definitely
stating that his future was single, known by him and unalterable. I know
that Merlin was in our past but he was talking about his future.